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Rosary
[the rose article]. A name given to the bead-roll
employed by Roman Catholics for keeping count of their repetitions of
certain prayers. It consists of three parts, each of which contains
five mystries connected with Christ or His virgin mother. The entire
roll consists of 150 Ave Marias, 15 Pater Nosters, and 15
doxologies. The word is said by some to be derived from the chaplet of
beads, perfumed with roses, given by the Virgin to St. Dominic. (This
cannot be correct, as it was in use A.D. 1100.) Others say the first
chaplet of the kind was made of rosewood; others, again, maintain that
it takes its name from the “Mystical Rose,” one of the titles of the
Virgin. The set is sometimes called “fifteens,” from its containing 15
“doxologies,” 15 “Our Fathers,” and 10 times 15 or 150 “Hail Marys.” (Latin, rosarium.)
The “Devotion of the Rosary” takes different forms: (1) the
Greater Rosary, or recitation of the whole fifteen mysteries; (2) the Lesser Rosary, or recitation of one of the mysteries; and (3) the Living Rosary, or the recitation of the fifteen mysteries by
fifteen different persons in combination.
In regard to the “rosewood,” this etymology is extremely doubtful.
The beads are now made of berries, wood, stone, ivory, metal, etc.,
sometimes of considerable value.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Rosary from Infoplease:
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